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The Third Choice provides a compelling introduction to Islam on the basis of its primary sources, the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad. Topics covered include the sharia; interpretation of the Qur'an; abrogation; women's rights (including female genital mutilation); lawful deception (taqiyya); Muhammad's responses to opposition; Islamic antisemitism; religious freedom; and prospects for reforming Islam.

After this critical introduction of Islam, there follows an explanation and critique of Islam's policy for non-Muslims living under Islamic conditions. The doctrine of the three choices (conversion, the sword, or the dhimma pact of surrender to Islam) is explained, including an analysis of the meaning of tribute payments (jizya) made by non-Muslims (dhimmis) to their Muslim conquerors. Durie describes the impact of dhimmitude on the human rights of non-Muslims in Islamic contexts around the world today, in the light of global Islamic resurgence and advancing Islamization, including pressure being exerted through the United Nations for states to conform to sharia restrictions on freedom of speech.

The Third Choice offers indispensable keys for understanding current trends in global politics, including the widening impact of sharia revival, deterioration of human rights in Islamic societies, jihad terrorism, recurring patterns of Western appeasement, interfaith dialogue initiatives, and the increasingly fraught relationship between migrant Muslim communities in the West and their host societies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mark Durie's presentation is as lucid as it is compelling. His work enables the reader to actually understand the precise psychological character of the moral capitulation that we now see overtaking so many minds. Peter Day. --Annals Australasia

The title of this riveting and important book comes from the principle that non-Muslims have three choices in a Sharia-dominated world: embrace Islam, be killed or enslaved, or live as subservient dhimmis. Mervyn F. Bendle. --News Weekly

This book is a great read. Roland Croucher. --The Baptist Witness

Durie in The Third Choice has produced a remarkable lucid compact, well annotated, comprehensive and enduring book. Jerry Gordon. --New English Review

From the Author

I wrote this book to help people understand Islam, and what it means to live under Islamic dominance if you are not a Muslim. The Third Choice is written in a way which is accessible to people of all faiths or none. It contains a lot of original material, which readers will not find elsewhere. For readers who are looking for an overtly Christian response to the material in The Third Choice, I can recommend Liberty to the Captives, which offers spiritual keys to finding freedom from Islam. My book Which God? considers the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God.

Top customer reviews

Westerners have a hard time understanding why Muslims are so sensitive to criticism of their ideology. This new book by an Australian evangelical minister, Mark Durie, provides some valuable insights. The author recounts about a young scholar who was in Egypt and wanted to study the Coptic theological analyses of Islam. He went to the Coptic Bishop in Cairo and asked where he could locate such books. The Bishop told him that they don't exist. How could this be, with Copts living under Islamic domination for 1,400 years? This would be baffling to Westerners, but perhaps not to Copts.

Durie's book gets down to basics in "unpacking" the Islamist thinking about dhimmitude -- the non-Muslim's liability for refusing to submit to Islam -- and jizya -- money paid to Muslims to restore what was their Allah-given rightful inheritance (being the entire world). One of the requirements of dhimmis is that they never criticize Islam or Muhammad, explaining why to this day, any criticism of Islam is seen as a serious offense to Muslims. The book is well-documented and carefully reasoned. It is not your typical anti-Islam rant, nor is it at all preachy.

Non-Muslims must resist the incipient dhimmitude attitude in the West that we shouldn't offend Muslims by criticising their ideology. On the contrary, this fact-filled book will help non-Muslims speak the truth in love to Muslims who most need to hear that their ideology, based on the Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet, runs counter to prevailing attitudes of freedom, equality, and true brotherly love in the West. This message is timely and important.

I finished reading Rev. Durie's book in a single day. Very impressive, erudite and yet highly readable. He has a special knack for explaining the background and reasons for such issues as the nature of jizya, why non-Muslims living in Muslim countries never speak ill of Islam and the degree of dissimulation that even scholars like Bernard Lewis (whom I have great respect for) engage in. His analogy of "British art in India" is a classic illustration of how distorted our thinking has become about the "achievements of Islam". Most importantly he superbly illustrates the double-standards in modern scholarship that allows Islamic law to escape the title which it so richly deserves; religious apartheid!, the separate and unequal treatment of people based on their religious beliefs. This is the tragedy of Islam! An ideology that condemns non-Muslims to silence and servitude cannot emerge from a medieval mindset. Once the non-Muslims have been strangulated then the downward spiral of mindless legalism must eventually begin to eat its own children. But I am hopeful; the screams of "Takfir" raging across the Muslim world are ripping the fabric of the Islamic prison apart and for the first time in history, Muslims in large numbers are escaping from the Sharia penitentiary. Iran is the place to watch for it is here that the Islamic revolution is unravelling in an unprecedented way.

This book is a commentary on Islam that cites primary sources- the Quran, the Sunna and the Haddiths as well as the work of scholars from earliest times right through to contemporary publications. It is very uncomfortable book to read and shows a religion out of step with the world in which we live. This is a religion that says not to take unbelievers as your friends and that it is acceptable to kill and rape infidels and plunder their property. It cites as one example the current crisis in Sudan where millions have been killed in the South. This religion also says that female circumcision is recommended, not a cultural tradition as we in the West are led to believe. This religion also says it is acceptable for young girls to be married and cites as an example the Ayatollah Khomeini who in his late 20's married an eleven year old girl. This is a religion that says it is permissable to lie and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory and gave many examples including Yassar Arafat who while in negotiation for peace with Israel gave an inflamatory speech in Capetown exhorting his hearers to come and to fight a jihad to liberate Jerusalem. This is a religion that still accepts that dhimmis (infidels) are required to pay jizya which is best described as a protection tax ie if you don't pay, the consequences are death, rape and plunder. The Christians in modern day Baghdad have to pay this.

In multicultural Australia we are encouraged to welcome and accept all people and their religion. We are not perfect and have made some regrettable decisions. After reading The Third Choice I feel I can no longer hold a balanced view about Islam and its place in modern Australia. Obviously I must read more, so Mark Drury has set me on a path of personal discovery that I hope will lead me to better informed opinions and comments.

This book is important and apposite. Our lounge rooms day by day are filled with stories that leave us agog. We can not rely of the media for any explanation that will bore down into the issues. Part of that is because the media is committed to a secular understanding of all of history. What is happening in our world today is not explained by a Marxist analysis of history. Much of it is about creed and confession. When you read the Third Choice, which is written from the standpoint of a believing Christian, you will gain an understanding of what is driving these forces, and hopefully you will gain a much richer understanding of what is happening.

Interacting with extremely devout muslims while completeing a masters in middle eastern studies, I often found myself completely unable to understand their viewpoint despite my knowledge of historical context. The Third Choice, helped to put their mad ramblings into a critical light.

The Third Choice is an essential book for anyone trying to understand the inherent cruelty of the Islamic faith, past and present, and their (pedophile) prophet himself.